John 3:19

And this is the judgment (auth de estin h krisi). A thoroughly Johannine phrase for sequence of thought ( 1 John 15:12 ; 1 John 17:3 ; 1 John 1:5 ; 1 John 5:11 1 John 5:14 ; 3 John 1:6 ). It is more precisely the process of judging (kri-si) rather than the result (kri-ma) of the judgment. "It is no arbitrary sentence, but the working out of a moral law" (Bernard). The light is come (to pw elhluqen). Second perfect active indicative of ercomai, a permanent result as already explained in the Prologue concerning the Incarnation ( 3 John 1:4 3 John 1:5 3 John 1:9 3 John 1:11 ). Jesus is the Light of the world. Loved darkness (hgaphsan to skoto). Job ( Job 24:13 ) spoke of men rebelling against the light. Here to skoto, common word for moral and spiritual darkness ( 1 Thessalonians 5:5 ), though h skotia in John 1:5 . "Darkness" is common in John as a metaphor for the state of sinners ( John 8:12 ; John 12:35, 46 John 46 ; 1 John 1:6 ; 1 John 2:8 1 John 2:9 1 John 2:11 ). Jesus himself is the only moral and spiritual light of the world ( 8:12 ) as he dared claim to his enemies. The pathos of it all is that men fall in love with the darkness of sin and rebel against the light like denizens of the underworld, "for their works were evil (ponhra)." When the light appears, they scatter to their holes and dens. Ponhro (from pono, toil, ponew, to toil) is used of the deeds of the world by Jesus ( 7:7 ). In the end the god of this world blinds men's eyes so that they do not see the light ( 2 Corinthians 4:4 ). The fish in the Mammoth Cave have no longer eyes, but only sockets where eyes used to be. The evil one has a powerful grip on the world ( 1 John 5:19 ).